Life on Two Wheels: Dockless Bikes Take Charlotte By Storm

(By Michelle Boudin, StyleBlueprint)

It’s called bike sharing. You may have seen evidence of it around town and not realized exactly what was going on. You know those bright green and orange bikes that seem to be parked at random locations? That’s what we’re talking about. Last year, the Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT) started the pilot program, encouraging several bike share companies to come to town. The idea is to help the Queen City become a more bike-friendly city. Between all the different companies, there are more than 2,000 bikes up for grabs — mostly in the Southend, Dilworth and Uptown areas.

Shannon Binns, the Executive Director of Sustain Charlottesays, “It’s fantastic! We’re such an auto-oriented city, and this is giving the people of Charlotte another option — and an easy option.”

Shannon adds, “What’s nice about these dockless bikes is that they’re not limited to a certain part of town, and I think this pilot program has turned Charlotte into more of a bike city.”

Shannon’s organization, Sustain Charlotte, will host Biketoberfest again this October for the third time, and he expects to have a bigger crowd than ever thanks to the dockless bikes.

“It’s fantastic. These bikes have been a huge hit already, and it was a cold winter. I can’t wait to see how many people are on bikes by summer!”